Ray's Runners

Hunt for Ring of Oroboros - legwork part 1

The Great Artifact Rush, artifact 1

The team was previously offered a job by Laurent from the Atlantean Foundation, they are to find and recover four artifacts. The pay is a meager 9,000 per person per artifact; Kayless is able to smoothly negotiate 12,000 per person per artifact and if all four are delivered successfully then each person on the team will be given a chip by Laurent.

The team decided to see what the other power player in The Great Artifact Rush, Draco Foundation, would be wiling to pay. Covon negotiates with Moreau a price of 10,000 per person per artifact to be delivered, with a condition that Moreau is NOT buying the coins of lucky. He is merely paying courier service of finding, collecting, and returning them.

The team hears rumors that Simon Andrews is interested in the artifacts and upon contacting him they are informed that he is willing to pay 1,000 per person for all information surrounding the artifact – who had it, where was it, how the players are able to acquire it, and anything useful they know about it.

Playing the other side yet again, the players hear that Lin Yao Chang is interested as well. He is willing to pay 3,000 per player if he can examine each artifact for one day.

With that the team is given the contact details of an information broker whom may be able to assist – Jonathan Packard.

Now the legwork begins -

First up is the Ring of Oroboros, which the team is given a heavily redacted file a decker sold to the information broker, this part is free. The first hit is always free…

The team begins draining the information broker of anything he knows about the ring: Where was it last known location? (The Grand Bazaar in Turkey where it was sold in a black market auction); Who sold the ring? (a gang known as “the 40 thieves” whom are known for their secrecy in both seller and buyer); Where is it going? (a Seattle warehouse for cleaning, authentication, and inspection); Where will it go from the warehouse? (it will be shipped via guarded convoy to another location, which has eluded the information broker); Who is appraising the ring? (A woman named Olympia Pichette); and Who bought the ring? (an unknown technocrat).

Kayless has heard some rumors about the warehouses in this area. Right next to the shipping wharf is a huge complex of warehouses, temporary storage warehouses. Companies can rent the warehouses for days, weeks, or months as needed for temporary holding space as goods are shipped into and out of Seattle.

Ange hit the streets to find out more information about the artifact expert Olympia Pichette, Kayless helps with some of his street contacts in digging up rumors. The team is able to find Olympia’s P2.1 that shows her CV (MIT&T alum with a bachelors degree in magical history and PhD in artifact magic). They also hear she runs a consultancy business where they clean, repair, identify, and authenticate magical items and artifacts.

Covon tries Jane Foster to help do some research, but is unable to reach her.

Ange and Kayless again hit the streets together to see if there are any rumors about the technocrat whom bought the ring. They hear it was a nouveau riche technocrat who made his money with some lucky investments by the name of Rudolph T. Donovan, III.

Kayless sits down to study the logistics of smuggling such an item from The Grand Bazaar into Seattle by way of sea port. He realizes that it would be done by placing it in a shipping container, one of thousands on the same ship (security by obscurity). At this point Kayless realizes he needs some matrix support to continue finding useful information. He calls his children whom successfully negotiate 50 per question and a bag of candy.
1) They are able to find satellite images which show a container ship that left Turkey at the same time and has a very circuitous route which will land in Seattle in 1-2 weeks, depending upon weather conditions, before continuing on to South America.
2) What artifacts does Rudolph T. Donovan, III have besides the ring? None
3) What business dealings does he have in The Grand Bazaar? None, all transactions are done through secure middlemen, just like shadowrunning
4) Does he own a shipping company? No
5) Is anything being transported in his name? no
6) Other business associates he has? Far too many to list, he is a former low level executive of an AA corp
7) Any notes on the shipping container? It is a red one, no specific details given as it is on the ships manifest
8) What ship is it being transported on? The HWCS Yucatan

Ang decided to see what rumors show about the security of Heavy Weight Container Ships. She finds that it has a few riggers that take shifts navigating the ship and a skeleton crew to keep the automated systems running. The ship loads and unloads itself, with little input from a rigger. The ships usually have heavy ECM to protect the rigger and robotic systems along with fire suppression systems that can be used offensively to deter pirates attempting to board the ship.

While Kayless finishes paying his child for information he is offhandedly informed that there is a soiree being held by Rudolph, which is how they were able to locate information on him. The invite is shared with the team, specifying the party will be at his newly purchased house, complete with boat dock and accompanying yacht, the week following the arrival of the artifact.

Ang decides to astrally project herself and travel to the ship to assense it. The ship is able to be located via satellite imagery; ang doesn’t find anything magical outside of the ship. She decided to use 5 of her spirits to help her search each of the 2,000 containers and the hull of the ship. The find that 5 containers contain magic of some type; three are completely full while two have smaller amounts. Neither Ang nor the spirits have seen the ring to know what it truly looks like and cannot locate it quite that easily. They are able to locate which containers out of the 2,000 so the team is able to watch for it as it is unloaded.

At this point the team realizes they need a safe house to work out of as they do traditional footwork, putting the synth-leather to the pavement so to speak. Kayless and {Brian} work together on finding a safe house that meets the teams needs – a 2 bedroom furnished apartment on the 10th floor of a 12 floor building that rents to executives on short term leases for business meetings. The flat has a clear view of the port as they needed. All of this for the low price of 300 a day; the team rents the flat until the Saturday after the party, a total of 14 days for 4200 out of the team fund.

The team heads out to survey the warehouse on foot. A long building with no windows, with doors on each of the short sides and an angled cheap metal roof make this building look like it was put up quickly and cheaply. Basic security with maglocks on doors that stay open most of the time, reminding the team of a hanger, except a small side door near one end that goes into an office room.

It is owned by a company known as Empire Rentals, with a huge AR sign emblazoned on the sides showing an attractive elf woman and rugged ork male speaking about the security, cleanliness, and ease of renting a warehouse from Empire Rentals. Other than the ad, no one notices any untoward activity; all the drones and workers mill about as to be expected in a warehouse/shipping setting. There are a few people that stand out as unsavory types, mafia men who take a cut of some dealings. Nothing unusual for an area populated by longshoreman and teamsters.

Kayless searches some of the dark matrix and finds that underground rigger games are held regularly in this area, each Saturday night late to early Sunday morning games are held in a different warehouse as area is available.

After a full day of legwork the team decides to call this Friday evening to an end, grabbing some chow and a nights sleep.

Ang decides to do some assensing in the area, {Brian} also joins in. The building has some geomancy wards on it, which Ang quickly realizes is to help keep the structure intact not a defensive ward. As they are assensing Kayless releases his flyspys to swarm around the area and look for any ECM, but nothing is found.

Covon and {Brian} head up to the roof of the safe house to assess the warehouse line of sight and sighting trajectory where they notice that they cannot get a clear sight picture to any door, only the long side and the roof.

The team heads back to the warehouse Saturday night late to attend the rigger games. Kayless dresses to impress rather than participate in the game and places a be (200 on 1:10 odds). He notices some commotion in the corner after placing his bet and releases his flyspys to record the happenings.

Covon and Ang decide they need to see how this FNG can handle himself. They take {Brian} over to where a group of 8 gangers are hanging out. A quick scan reveals these are members of the Rusty Nails, a gang that the team has encountered previously, whom gave up quickly without a shot fired. Not this time – Covon and {Brian} both continue to antagonize until the Nail draw their stun batons.

A few second later and most of the Nails are dead, with a couple knocked unconscious. Covon handles one as he usually does – restrains and disarms him, then heals him to garner information. Unfortunately the team was a little rough and it takes a few hours before the Ork comes to his senses.